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| Brunei Darussalam |
Talking about Brunei Darussalam maybe only few people know where it is. Even I do not know exactly where it is. I mean, even media almost talked nothing about this little Kingdom.
I went there earlier this month for ASEAN Fair 2015 which was held in International Convention Centre, Bandar Seri Begawan. I had been there for five days and I found many things run differently in this small country.
The way I get there
I took Airasia from Singapore’s Changi. The last flight available is at 9.20 pm to which would transit in KLIA2 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So the route will be Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Brunei. There is direct flight from Singapore to Brunei which is Royal Brunei Airlines, but it was way higher the airfare.
It took exactly 1 hour from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. It was 10.20 pm when I arrived at KLIA2. Talking about KLIA, it was my first time to get there. I spent time there for at least 8 hours as my next flight would be t 6.45am local time. What the hell!
Anyway, this airport is just okay. There is a movie lounge, sport lounge, food court, duty free, money changer (of course), minimarket that open 24 hours plus WiFi to stay connected. The only thing was we could hardly find the plug to recharge our electrical devices.
It took around 2.5 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Brunei. The plane landed at 9 am. There was no difference between Malaysia and Brunei time. Once I stepped into the arrival hall, what I felt was like “Okay I find something unique here”. The directory signage there was written in Arabic letter but it's not Arabic (the language), and I believe if there was any Arabian seeing the words they would not understand it either, or at least without a mislead meaning for them.
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| Signage in English and Jawi |
They called it Huruf Jawi (Jawi letter). So, the directory signage all around Brunei was using Latin alphabetical letter (sure as they speak English and Malay) and Jawi letter. The latter one was basically Malay but was written in Arabic. Confusing for those not learning it.
After get myself refreshed I went directly to International Convention Centre or the locals called it ICC (it reminds me of the one in Den Haag everytime I speak ICC). I took taxi lah. Anyway, talking about taxi, for your information, there’re only thirtyish taxis in Brunei as everyone uses cars, no wonder the taxi fare was very expensive. It’s less than 1 mile from the airport to ICC and it charged me BND25.00 (USD18.70)! I paid in Singapore Dollar. We could use Singapore dollars here as they pegged the currency as the same rate.
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| Taxi fare receipt. Super expensive! |
What to see in Brunei.
Well, the size of this Kingdom is ten times of Singapore, but its population is one tenth of Singapore’s. And it’s oil-rich country. And it’s Sharia country. So, every Friday starting from 12 noon until 2 pm all is compulsory to end any activities as it’s time for Friday prayer. All shops have to end activities at 10 pm except in some areas, and it’s even not many.
Alcohol and cigars are forbidden here. (They usually smuggled) the cigars from the neighbouring Malaysia’s city of Miri. And for alcohol drink, only non-Muslim can get them in. Anyway, the rules remain the rules. The truth is the truth.
I went to the city of Bandar Seri Begawan on Friday morning and went around the city in a very limited time. Friday! There was Kampong Ayer (Kampong Air in Bahasa Indonesia or Water Village in English) where we could see the remaining traditional authentic Kampong houses of local Bruneian. It was located by the Bruneian river, that’s why they called it so.
From Kampong Ayer, we could see the Istana (Sultan palace). It looked like mosque, with many minarets and golden dome. We could reach there by water taxi, unfortunately, as I had no time so I skipped the trip to the palace. There was also a monument that was made in celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the King, Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzadin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien Sultan dan Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam.
I moved to visit Masjid Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien, one of the most beautiful mosque in Asia. You could see the 24-carat glittering gold covering the dome of the mosque. There are many great (and glitter) mosques in Brunei (even there is a great one next to the airport) and some of the monument are made of gold!
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| Another great mosque just next to the airport |
Another thing was that lots of Indonesian in Brunei. I mean, even at the downtown I could easily find someone talking Javanese here, and Bruneian had already been familiar with them anyway. The migrant workers in Brunei were mostly coming from Indonesia, with the rest were coming from Thailand and the Philippines. That’s what made me relief at some point, I could easily find Indonesian food!!!! I ate Ayam Penyet and Tempe Mendoan during my stay in Brunei, of course, I ate other food as well. But, you know, even I went to a restaurant they offered me various Nasi Goreng and Teh Tarik which was of course Indonesian food. I was just like “Okay, I’m not really out of home.”